Old film - I love Casablanca for this look.

tunalegs said:
If you want a bizarre subversion of film noir tropes, try watching Beat The Devil. The humor was a bit too dry for audiences of the time, but it has aged nicely, and has some very funny performances by character actors of the time. Peter Lorre has one of the funniest scenes in the movie. I'm pretty sure it is in the public domain so it's not hard to find online (unfortunately this also means most copies are of low quality).

The lighting in these old movies is noticeably unrealistic, but that's where most of the look comes from.
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I've got that one on DVD. You can find it on putlocker.is Of course it is low resolution, but if watched at a small size on the computer it looks ok. Can't complain when it is free.
 
Nokton48 said:
Specular hard lighting is obvious throughout the film. I have three or four or five Photogenic Mini-Spots and they do a nice job. Used to use them for portraiture back in the '90's.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Photogenic-...035584?hash=item43eca4da40:g:FsIAAOSwx-9W0ywx

I'm also a huge fan of the Rodenstock Imagon (I have Imagons in every focal length, 120mm to 480mm). In some of the Bacall close-ups I would not be surprised if an Imagon derivitive was used. It's a doublet with an H/Stop in the front portion. The highlights glow, the lower values stay very sharp. The classic "Imagon Effect".
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Carl Struss developed the most popular soft focus lens for motion picture work. I've not seen one of the lenses in person but they produce beautiful images. You might Google his name.

I have a 200mm Imagon in a compound shutter and really love it. I also have a very rare Ilex Photoplastic extreme soft focus in a #5 Ilex and a nice Wollensak Vesta Portrait. I had a very nice Kodak 305mm soft focus portrait lens also.

Soft focus lenses perform their best with hard light and high ratios.

Dave if you want the motion picture look shoot your Super XX with uncoated lenses and contact it on Kodak B&W fine grain release film then project it in a slide projector.
 
x-ray said:
Carl Struss developed the most popular soft focus lens for motion picture work. I've not seen one of the lenses in person but they produce beautiful images. You might Google his name.

I have a 200mm Imagon in a compound shutter and really love it. I also have a very rare Ilex Photoplastic extreme soft focus in a #5 Ilex and a nice Wollensak Vesta Portrait. I had a very nice Kodak 305mm soft focus portrait lens also.

Soft focus lenses perform their best with hard light and high ratios.

Dave if you want the motion picture look shoot your Super XX with uncoated lenses and contact it on Kodak B&W fine grain release film then project it in a slide projector.
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Now THAT sounds like a great starting point... M6, but which uncoated lens?
I have a slide projector... Contact it?... Hmmm gonna need a little help with the rest!
 
Here are my shorter Imagons, I use these on my Plaubel Makiflexes. The 120mm, the 150mm (both of these will work on a Nikon), the 200mm, the 250mm, and the 300mm. I also have the 360mm and 420mm, which I use on my Sinar Norma cameras.


2016-02-22 16.49.40 by Nokton48, on Flickr
 
dave lackey said:
Really? They will work on the F6?

Ok... Now this is really getting interesting... thanks, man!:cool:
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Well Yes, you could put any soft focus lens on a 35mm SLR, you would need a bellows to focus the longer ones, but it could be done...

When I bought my 120mm Imagon, it came with a Rodenstock Focusing Helical, which focused the lens from a couple of feet to infinity. I had a photo machinist in Chicago make a "prolongation tube" to focus the 150mm Imagon when attached to the focusing helical.

Actually I just sold the Helical, 150mm Imagon, and Prolongation Tube to a friend in the UK. He collects Pentacon Sixes and Exakta 66's, and I had an adapter made for those cameras. I was happy to sell it to him, as he has a lot of interest in the Imagons, and is writing them up for his website soon.

www.pentaconsix.com
 
Sweet Smell of Success . . .
Lady in the Lake]
To Have and Have Not
Gilda
Rebecca


. . . especially Gilda

Anything in the Thin Man series. . . but I just like them as movies. The cinematography is a little "Hollywood High Key" for my tastes.
 
In 1973 François Truffaut's La Nuit américaine ("Day for night") won the Oscar (best foreign language).
It is a classic and beside that describes the technic nicely.
 
I would highly recommend to check John Alton's work in Anthony Mann's movies Raw Deal, T-Men and Border Incident. Some amazing stuff! Of course The Third Man is incredible. Do check also The Asphalt Jungle. Those movies are the reason why I got interested in photography in the first place.

John Alton also wrote a very interesting book called Painting With Light.
http://www.jorgeparra.com/files/Painting_With_Light.pdf
 
Everyone should watch "Casablanca," Dave.
If they don't, they'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of their life.
 
Charlie Chan, believe it or not

Charlie Chan, believe it or not

The plotlines & dialog might be a bit hokey today, but several of the Charlie Chan mysteries were well-made noir. In those days the Studios had plenty of craftsmen behind the camera, and even a "comedy" detective flick had to be done up as noir-ish. There were several behind-camera people, just as there was more than one "Charlie", but some of the camerawork & lighting was solid. I grew up with only B&W TV, so the old "classics" suffered less when moved to the small screen. A few times I had the impression that the director/camera crew were reeealy putting out an effort, maybe angling for a promotion from the "B" films up the the "A" list? I think these are all out on DVD, even in sets. --alfredian
 
For top notch noir cinematography then you must watch Orsen Wells' Touch of Evil.
 
CK Dexter Haven said:
I always liked The Stranger more than Citizen Kane. Another beautifully-shot 'film noir' movie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_(1946_film)

Schindler's List was gorgeous. Shot on 5222 Double-X.

Hitchcock's SUSPICION was beautiful....
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Many of Orson Welles' movies look fantastic, even his worst films. The opening scene at the docks in Mr. Arkadin is full of wonderful shots, unfortunately the movie goes downhill pretty quickly after that. Welles never took much credit for the look of his films in interviews I've seen, despite many seeming to hand that credit to him.
 
I remember the episode from Casablanca in the book about chess game history. Big and interesting book.
All of the movies I watched at home TV prior to beginning of nineties were bw...
This is one Soviet BW movie:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cranes_Are_Flying
It won the Palme d'Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival.

I like bw movies from this time and to seventies. Marvelous bw films.
 
I recently rewatched Kuroneko, and I think it may be one of the most beautifully lit and shot black and white films of all time.
 
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